FRIAR              Therefore thy earliness doth me assure

                        Thou art uproused with with some distemp’rature;

                        Or if not so, then here I hit it right,

                        Our Romeo hath not been in bed tonight.

ROMEO           That last is true, the sweeter rest was mine.

FRIAR              God pardon sin! wast thou with Rosaline?

ROMEO           With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no;

                        I have forgot that name, and that name’s woe.

FRIAR              That’s my good son, but where hast thou been then?

ROMEO           I’ll tell thee ere thou ask it me again (2.3.39-48)

The first inference would have been true for any other early morning encounter with Romeo, but – and we imagine Romeo trying to interrupt after distemp’rature– the Friar quickly realises that something is different, that he has in fact been up all night. Romeo can be triumphant, a bit swaggery here, perhaps justifying the Friar’s concerned response – God pardon sin!– but sweeter rest also recalls the language of the balcony scene: Sweet has been the last epithet that Juliet has addressed to Romeo, and in his final words to her, wishing her sleep and peace, Romeo has longed to be that sleep and peace, so sweet to rest. It’s telling that the Friar knows about Romeo’s infatuation with Rosaline, given that his parents don’t; this exchange is quickly working to establish a relationship of longstanding trust between the two of them (and this is reinforced by the couplets and the stichomythia, especially the with Rosaline? | With Rosaline pick-up. Romeo’s retort, I have forgot that name, and that name’s woe, echoes the balcony scene again, in which names and roses have been compared, and Romeo has responded with such affirmative alacrity to Juliet’s suggestion that he doff his name. (Woe is a word that resonates through the play: he may have forgotten that name’s woe, but he will soon experience a far greater.) And it’s not just Rosaline’s name that he’s forgotten (although, of course, he hasn’t) – it’s his own, and his own previous identity as the mopey boy. About time, responds the Friar, but what’s been going on, and then an authentic teenage note again: if you’ll only stop asking me questions, I’ll tell you.